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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: The great Modernizer of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is one of the most important historical figures in Turkish and Middle Eastern history. Born as Mustafa in 1881 in the Ottoman Empire he went on to become a distinguished military office during World War I and later revolutionary statesman in the wake of the Decline of the Ottoman Empire after its loss of said empire. He would go on to become the leader of the provisional Ankara based government of Turkey Ottoman Empire he set up in 1921. This government abolished the Sultanate in 1922 and in 1923 abolished the Caliphate thus making Ataturk the founder and first president of the Secular Republic of Turkey. He ruled as its dictator until his death in 1938 and his party, the Republican Peoples Party, ruled it as a single party regime to an almost interruption free extent until 1945 During his tenure as President, Ataturk advanced an ambitious serious of radical reforms towards the end of westernizing and Modernizing the new Turkish nation-state. Some might argue that he was a genocidal maniac. I would however argue that one can see, based on the evidence at hand, that Ataturk was the modernizer of Turkey and not a genocidal maniac. First I will provide a basic background, then I will state Ataturks ideology and its impacts on Turkey and then deal with the criticism of him being genocidal. The background that can be provided on to the rise and rule of Ataturk can be quite extensive but the salient aspect thereof concerns the rise and fall thereof. The Ottoman Empire was the last of the Islamic Caliphates. At the Peak of its Power under Sulieman the magnificent it stretched from South eastern Europe to Yemen to Algeria . It was a multicultural multiethnic empire that was known for its religious tolerance. By WWI however its medieval Splendor and religious tolerance had eroded long ago under the rule of the inept and corrupt Caliphs. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire WWI resulted in the loss of her grand empire. The fall the

Ottoman Empire was also exacerbated by the rise of nationalism in the Balkans, which resulted in revolts. Nationalistic ideas would come to be popular in Anatolia and form a major pillar in Ataturks philosophy. The only land it had left at this point was Turkey proper, the power base of the empire, which is located for the most part on the Anatolian Peninsular. This largely ethnic Turkish land is what would become the Republic of Turkey under Ataturk and it is during his life under the Ottoman Empire that convinced him that Westernization is necessary. It is important to note the ideology that Ataturk came to apply to Turkeys development for although he pursued a policy of westernization and modernization like many other countries, he did in a uniquely Turkish way. The Philosophy he came to use was known as Kemalism. Officially announced in May 1931 it is defined by six principles: Nationalism, Rebublicanism, Secularism, Statism, Populism and Revolutionism/Reformism. Nationalism as articulated by this ideology means the creation of a New Assimilative Turkish Identity as a replacement for the pan Islamist identity that had existed under Ottoman Empire. Republicanism is the belief in the replacement of the monarchial political order with modern republican institutions of governance. Secularism is the belief in the removal of religious involvement in state activities and the absence of state involvement in religious activities. Statism is the belief that the state should be at the forefront of economic development. This should be confused with Socialism as it does not seek a wealth redistributionist agenda but rather that of the state advancing the economic interests of the country in the areas that the private sector would not or could not do. Populism in this context is defined